Running in the Desert
by Ima Super Mute Ant
Summary: One shot Lee is running somewhere, and he's in quite a hurry. A birthdayfic for Gaara. GaaLee slight Shonenai fluff.


Here you go folks. It wrote this fic in honor of Gaara's birthday! w00t birthday! I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes, my computer currently only has wordpad and no spellcheck... ah well, c'est la vie .

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Running in the Desert

By ISMA

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Lee had spent the last three days running, it seemed. Running through Kohona, running from Kohona, running back to Kohona because he forgot his bag, running around Kohona when he realized he had left it with Gai-sensei. Indeed, running had been his main objective for many days. And yet, Lee was still running at his top speed across the desert. He had even gone so far as to remove his training weights in order to run faster.

Why was Lee running? Because he was late.

Duh.

At exactly noon the shinobi stopped running. Partially because it was noon in the desert, and partially because his sandal had fallen off thirty feet ago. He jogged back, pushing sweat-laden hair from his eyes, to retreave his footware and took a swig of stale water from his canteen. Lee may have built for running, but he was not built for running in the desert. He was drenched right down to his bright orange leg warmers in sweat, his strong and manly mustles were strained from the effort of pulling themsleves through sand day after day, he had a sunburn.

Lee _HATED _sunburns.

Having been raised in the cool green forests of Kohona, where it was cold in winter, hot in summer, and raining in between, Lee found it hard to deal with the unforgivable desert. It was cruel (and Lee had a moment of anger at himself for it), but Lee _HATED _the desert.

It wasn't the sand that got into every nick and cranny of Lee's clothing and food. And it wasn't the dryness that made Lee's skin feel like it had cracked and fallen away and then regrown and then cracked and...

...It might have been the heat.

It might also have been the lonliness. Every night in the desert was cold and alone, without even the sounds of birds that he took for granted in Kohona. Nothing stirred, and Lee was completely alone in the cold dark. Lee could deal with pain, but being alone made him want to turn around and run home to Gai-senei with his metaphorical tail between his legs.

However it was not currently nighttime in the desert. It was noon, and Lee was late. He tossed his canteen back in his bag and set off again at a dead run underneith the scalding desert sun. Lee could already feel his skin peeling away, and his dark hair absorbing every ray of heat it encountered. Sometimes Lee considered chopping it all off, just so he could get to treating the sunburn underneith.

But those were pessimistic thoughts, and Lee was anything but a pessimist. He pushed himself harder, tired leg mustles grinding away. _If I can't make my goal by tonight,_ Lee challanged himself,_ I will... I will..._

_...I think I might cry._

He pushed just a bit faster. If his estimation were right he would be arriving at his destination in three hours. There were only three hours of desert left before he reached...

Well, it would be still be the desert but at least it woule be the desert with _PEOPLE_. Lee could feel his good-guy-grin growing on his face, _Just three more hours_, he told himself.

Time passed like a burning iceburg. First five minutes, then ten, then a half an hour. Then suddenly Lee found that it had been over two hours and the very tops of buildings could be seen on the horizon. He pushed faster, the sand shot out from behind him in waves.

First lee saw the buildings, then the walls of the village presented themselves, then the gates. At excatly three-o-clock in the afternoon Rock Lee shot through the gates of Sunagakure like a bat out of hell on a rocket. He was halfway through the village when he came to a stop, face to face with the honorable Kazekage. Actually, it was more like face to chest because Lee had managed to bowl the viallge's top shinobi over and was now lying on top of him, catching his breath.

"Lee." Gaara said, slight muffled by the smaller man's hair.

Lee jumped up, and brushed off his dirt-encrusted jumpsuit. A full-fledged, award-winning, good-guy-grin let loose all its glory on the Kazekage, blinding in it's youthful joy.

"It heard it was you BIRTHDAY!" Lee exclaimed, still full of flaming youth, even after a three day trek.

"I have brought you a GIFT! Made by my own hands, to celebrate the joy of your FLOURASHING YOUTH!" With that he reached into his bag and produced...

...a hat.

This was no ordinary hat, however. This hat was _orange_ and _green_ with undefinable lumps of knitted material and _ear-flaps­. _It proudly diplayed a bright pom-pom at the top, almost twice the size of the had itself. There were spots of blood on it from when Lee had somehow managed to stab himself with the knitting needles.

Gaara stared.

"...You made this." He said finally, "for me?"

"YES!" Lee happily replied.

For a moment Gaara did nothing but hold the garment gingerly in his hands, as if it would explode.

"It is a hat..." Gaara said, almot unsure.

"YES!" Lee excaimed.

"You knitted me a hat, and then ran all the way her to give it to me." Gaara said, emotionless still.

"Happy Birthday!" Lee shouted, his voice echoing throughout the villaige.

Gaara stood for a few moments more. Then, without a word. Lifted his new hat and placed it on his head, despite the fact that it was over a hundred degrees in the _DESERT_.

There was another moment of silence as Lee caught his breath and Gaara enjoyed the feeling of his new gift, and then Lee had a mouthfull of sand (although he didn't mind _at all_) and there were a pair of arms around Lee's shoulders, portraying gratitude as well as they knew how.

...And Lee _LOVED_ the desert.

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There you go... please review. for the hat. the hat wants you to review. 


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